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The Not So Secret Rapture
reformed.org ^ | W. Fred Rice

Posted on 01/14/2011 5:57:52 PM PST by topcat54

Evangelical book catalogs promote books such as Planet Earth: The Final Chapter, The Great Escape, and the Left Behind series. Bumper stickers warn us that the vehicle’s occupants may disappear at any moment. It is clear that there is a preoccupation with the idea of a secret rapture. Perhaps this has become more pronounced recently due to the expectation of a new millennium and the fears regarding potential Y2K problems. Perhaps psychologically people are especially receptive to the idea of an imminent, secret rapture at the present time. Additionally, many Christians are not aware that any other position relative to the second coming of Jesus Christ exists. Even in Reformed circles there are numerous people reading these books. Many of these people are unaware that this viewpoint conflicts with Scripture and Reformed Theology.

(Excerpt) Read more at reformed.org ...


TOPICS: Theology
KEYWORDS: crusades; endtimes; eschatology; rapture
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To: The Theophilus
Perhaps one could sum it up by saying, that generally speaking Jews are overachievers, unfortunately one all to common manifestation of their overachievement is in their opposition and hatred of Jesus Christ and His Church.

2000 years of Christianity has made the Jews very wary of Christians. And yes, that includes the Church for most of its existence. But the Protestants, beginning with Luther started right in on Jew bashing which continues to this day.

The take-away from this is - no matter how rotten we are, no matter how depraved, wicked and sinful as individuals we can be, our LORD's Grace can still find us and save us from the Wrath to Come.

We have accord.

1,881 posted on 01/29/2011 2:29:43 PM PST by MarkBsnr (I would not believe in the Gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so..)
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To: MarkBsnr; RnMomof7; HarleyD; Quix; Dr. Eckleburg; metmom
Doc E: What do you think this is?

MarkBsnr: I don't know.

Sadly, this poor child seems to have been inculcated...:


1,882 posted on 01/29/2011 2:38:22 PM PST by Gamecock (The resurrection of Jesus Christ is both historically credible and existentially satisfying. T.K.)
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To: presently no screen name
How do you know that? IF they spend 400 years under Egyptian rule w/idol worship - since that's all they knew - they would do the same.

The Japanese would not have spent 400 years under Egyptian rule if they had the same mindset during the rule of the samurai. I really don't think that they would do the same.

It's like anyone coming out of Catholicism - we all had to kill those sacred cows that we were taught- brainwashed with - it was all we knew.

I am a cradle Catholic. Catholicism is not all I know. Sounds like you may have simply exchanged one fixed mindset that you did not like for another that you do like and engage in the destruction of the previous mindset which includes attacking it when it is practiceable in order to nurse along the justification of that switch. Blind robot adherents of Catholicism are not much better than blind robot adherents of any other belief system. They may have latched onto the correct one, but they have no clue as to why.

Then instructed that we needed the Holy Spirit to understand God's Supernatural Word since it is Spiritually discerned. Something Catholics still DO NOT understand and their posts show that. God tells us about HIS WORD "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned". Catholics ignore it because 'their man made teachings' - their 'EGYPT' - tell them differently.

Then tell me about the myriad teachings of the children of the Reformation and tell me why the Holy Spirit has sanctioned them all. Or, if He has not sanctioned them, tell me which ones are correct. Are the Mormons correct? Are the Oneness Pentecostals correct? Are the Branch Davidians correct? Are they all sanctioned by the Holy Spirit? Tell me why, if you would.

Talk about being stiff necked!

Talk about inventing your own religions...

1,883 posted on 01/29/2011 2:39:31 PM PST by MarkBsnr (I would not believe in the Gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so..)
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To: Alamo-Girl

Thanks.

PRAISE GOD for your fair-minded thoroughness.


1,884 posted on 01/29/2011 2:40:35 PM PST by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
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To: Alamo-Girl
And the Reformers might likewise claim that the Catholic Church never understood certain Scriptures, e.g. prophecy, Eucharist, ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Yes, yes, and each generation of the children of the Reformation claims that their immediate predecessors didn't understand them either. Luther corrected Augustine. Calvin corrected Luther, Augustine and Paul. The Restoration corrected Calvin. Joseph Smith corrected them all. And so on. Robert Schuller, Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, the entire cast of Pentecostal televangelists. They all know better than the preceding generation, don't they?

Why don't you tell me that the Holy Spirit, in opposition to the story of the tower of Babel, has led them all?

1,885 posted on 01/29/2011 2:44:13 PM PST by MarkBsnr (I would not believe in the Gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so..)
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To: MarkBsnr; Dr. Eckleburg
I don't know. It is not what the Jews built at the foot of Mount Sinai. It says iStockphoto on it and has an X through it, along with some sort of icon. Do you know what it is?

TUT TUT TUT Mary would not be happy that you denied her like that

1,886 posted on 01/29/2011 2:44:47 PM PST by RnMomof7
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To: betty boop; Alamo-Girl; kosta50; HarleyD; xzins; MarkBsnr; wmfights; 1000 silverlings; ...
Dawkins: "The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully." — Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion)

k50: That's pretty much right on the money. Can you show me otherwise?

In light of aforementioned comment, it again raises the question of exactly what is the purpose of kosta's participation on these threads.

What with the way he tears down and mocks and ridicules believer's belief in God, trust in Scripture, the nature and character of God, and the veracity of His Word, it appears that his primary purpose on these threads is to undermine people's faith and dissuade them from belief in God.

Jeepers, talk about a case of "the pot calling the kettle black!" This "God" is simply Dawkins, writ large. In short, Dawkins is the "measure" of God here....

Likewise, it's not unreasonable to presume that kind of projection from anyone who so rejects and labels God.

Excellent analysis of the types of atheist.

It is odd that some people spend so much time and energy railing against something they shout from the roof tops does not exist. As someone said about Dawkins once, if there's ever proof that there can be an idiot with an IQ over 150....

1,887 posted on 01/29/2011 2:48:37 PM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: Gamecock

Okay, what is this?


1,888 posted on 01/29/2011 2:49:22 PM PST by MarkBsnr (I would not believe in the Gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so..)
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To: RnMomof7
TUT TUT TUT Mary would not be happy that you denied her like that

Can you explain what you mean?

1,889 posted on 01/29/2011 2:50:47 PM PST by MarkBsnr (I would not believe in the Gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so..)
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To: Alamo-Girl

EXCELLENT AND BIBLICAL POINT.


1,890 posted on 01/29/2011 2:54:45 PM PST by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
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To: metmom
In light of aforementioned comment, it again raises the question of exactly what is the purpose of kosta's participation on these threads.

I asked him in because of his knowledge of the early Church, the development and selection of Scripture and the relationship of Jewish versus Christian belief of the same Scripture.

Likewise, it's not unreasonable to presume that kind of projection from anyone who so rejects and labels God.

I was unaware that Kosta is an atheist. You weren't accusing Kosta of being an atheist, were you?

It is odd that some people spend so much time and energy railing against something they shout from the roof tops does not exist. As someone said about Dawkins once, if there's ever proof that there can be an idiot with an IQ over 150....

And there are many who have high opinions of themselves whose primary utility is in converting food to waste.

1,891 posted on 01/29/2011 2:56:14 PM PST by MarkBsnr (I would not believe in the Gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so..)
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To: 1000 silverlings

Wellllllllllll

the switch happens at midnight and again just before dawn. . . . didn’t you know?


1,892 posted on 01/29/2011 2:58:09 PM PST by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
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To: MarkBsnr
And there are many who have high opinions of themselves whose primary utility is in converting food to waste.

Utility? Regarding a human being? Peter Singer, is that you?

1,893 posted on 01/29/2011 3:00:40 PM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: Gamecock; Dr. Eckleburg; MarkBsnr
do you know what this is?






1,894 posted on 01/29/2011 3:07:21 PM PST by Cronos
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To: RegulatorCountry
Utility? Regarding a human being? Peter Singer, is that you?

No, just observing that we have a lot of high opinioned idiots who wander through these threads. Perhaps the snide references to Dawkins as an idiot are actually the self loathing that one experiences when one rejects the Truth. Who knows?

1,895 posted on 01/29/2011 3:07:56 PM PST by MarkBsnr (I would not believe in the Gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so..)
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To: MarkBsnr; 1000 silverlings; Alex Murphy; bkaycee; blue-duncan; boatbums; caww; count-your-change; ..
mm: We didn’t decide that we couldn’t make the grade and go out to find another church that would suit us.

mb: That is not how you worded it on this forum, no.

It's not by playing church that one gets to heaven. I did not grocery shop for churches based on which one I felt offered me the promise of the easiest way into heaven. I looked for a church which provided the best opportunity to grow in the faith I already had.

mm: Almost all of us who have left the Catholic church after being born again, have done so with our eyes wide open after having discovered the TRUTH in God’s word, the Truth that is contradicted by Catholic doctrine constantly.

mb: We have had numerous exchanges and I have read numerous other posts that you have made. I will stand by my statement that those who leave the Church do so for personal reasons and those who choose to enter the Church as converts do so for theological ones.

While I INITIALLY left for personal reasons, when I left for good it WAS because of theological ones. If you happened to also read my statements, you'll recall that once I was born again, which had nothing to do with my church attendance, but rather circumstances in my life (which I don't believe I ever shared) it was AFTER I was born again, that I had the desire to attend church that I started attending the Catholic parish that was my home parish. It was the the theological differences between what the RCC taught and what I read in Scripture that led me to find another church that taught closer to the Bible.

And believe me, I had no clue about OPC, predestination, the whole church history and Reformation stuff that I've learned here. It was must me and reading the Word of God.

Interesting statement coming from an individual who rejects the Gospel of Jesus Christ as being only relevant to the Jews.

I have no idea what you're referring to here.

The Titanic had neither the promise of Jesus nor the presence of the Holy Spirit for ever.

After seeing Roman Catholic church history, I'm forced to come to that conclusion that it never did either.

1,896 posted on 01/29/2011 3:08:49 PM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: MarkBsnr
Dawkins actually is an idiot whenever he strays into theology, as he is frequently wont to do.
1,897 posted on 01/29/2011 3:11:39 PM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: Dr. Eckleburg; MarkBsnr




Stephen Hick's "John Calvin's Geneva
The city-state of Geneva was in effect, a police state, ruled by a Consistory of five pastors and twelve lay elders, with the bloodless figure of the dictator looming over all, John Calvin....

Frail, thin, short, and lightly bearded, with ruthless, penetrating eyes, he was humorless and short-tempered. The slightest criticism enraged him. Those who questioned his theology he called “pigs,” “asses,” “riffraff,” “dogs,” “idiots,” and “stinking beasts.” One morning he found a poster on his pulpit accusing him of “Gross Hypocrisy.” A suspect was arrested. No evidence was produced, but he was tortured day and night for a month till he confessed. Screaming with pain, he was lashed to a wooden stake. Penultimately, his feet were nailed to the wood; ultimately he was decapitated.


1,898 posted on 01/29/2011 3:12:31 PM PST by Cronos
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To: Cronos
I notice that Calvin's name is elevated in the bottom photograph. That cannot possibly be a sign of reverence, no way.

The 30 foot tall sculpture of Calvin in no way emphasizes his pre-eminence as the greatest theologian in the world, supplanting Augustine and St. Paul both.

The assembly line row of Calvin mugs in no way promotes the drunkenness that he put people to death for.

1,899 posted on 01/29/2011 3:12:36 PM PST by MarkBsnr (I would not believe in the Gospel if the authority of the Catholic Church did not move me to do so..)
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To: Gamecock

It starts early


1,900 posted on 01/29/2011 3:14:02 PM PST by RnMomof7
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